If you believe in a higher power, then you should believe in prayer. It couldn't hurt. I think if you are being unselfish and talking to God through prayer, he listens. He responds in his time, not yours. You should put your heart into it and trust that God will answer at one point or another.

Yes, but you won't grow back a severed limb

It's all about our primal life force. Praying is about asking, through your own life force to influence to other peoples life forces to make conscious or subconcious changes around them. I.E praying for an amputee may influence how they feel about their injury or give them inner strength to aid recovery. But they will still be an amputee. Praying is regardless of religion, anyone can do it, anyone can connect with their life force. Selfless prayer is more powerful that selfish prayer, group prayer is stronger again. Praying for other does make you feel good too.

Prayer and the placebo effect are not mutually exclusive.

Study after study show that one's belief system has a measurable effect on a physical outcome. If one has an expectation that a given outcome will take place, there is a statistically relevant chance that that outcome will happen. For this reason, we have double blind studies to give just one example--but their are countless others. The burden of proof in this case is on the materialists to explain how an internal conscious event can have a measurable external effect.

Yes, it does

Yes, as a firm believe in the power of prayer, I have to strongly agree that prayer really does work. We have a God who is all-knowing and all-loving and if you pray to Him, He will hear you and He will answer your prayers in one way or another.

Prayer Has Worked for Me

I am an alcoholic. I prayed for recovery during my last night of drinking.That was 45 years ago. An apparition appeared at my bedroom window.Nothing was said, but my mind received a message and I poured my remaining bottle of gin down the kitchen sink and within a few days found myself at AA.I now have over 45 years of sobriety. I have had other experiences when prayers and people as angels brought me through brain tumor surgery and cancer survival. In friendship and peace,Paul

If you believe in His power, it does

Prayer does not always have to "work." You can pray for a million dollars, but God won't grant it immediately. Rather, He gives you confidence and strength, and if you believe in Him and pray to him, you will eventually work hard and achieve that money. Prayer is merely asking God for strength and the capabilities to achieve your desires. He blesses you with this, but He is too Almighty to simply grant you your desires with no work or devotion.

The placebo effect

The placebo effect has been observed in many experiments. If people believe, say a useless tablet made from flour, has an effect, then that effect may actually happen due to the placebo effect. In fact, a person got "sick" after a doctor had a false positive when diagnosing what sicknesses she has. However, after a few months, when another doctor has diagnosed her correctly and found out that it was just a false positive, her sickness was gone! Working prayers are caused by the placebo effect too. It may not be a supernatural explanation, but prayer still works.

The placebo effect

The placebo effect has been observed in many experiments. If people believe, say a useless tablet made from flour, has an effect, then that effect may actually happen due to the placebo effect. In fact, a person got "sick" after a doctor had a false positive when diagnosing what sicknesses she has. However, after a few months, when another doctor has diagnosed her correctly and found out that it was just a false positive, her sickness was gone! Working prayers are caused by the placebo effect too. It may not be a supernatural explanation, but prayer still works.

I think praying does work

I honestly think that praying works, as one time I fingered my sister and ever sense then, probation, house arrest etc, everything is better right now and it has been a year. - This was made up i do think that praying works but I don't know an example. Just love life, do it anyways, even if it doesn't work, just for the safety of God himself.

Yes, prayer works.

15 years ago a specialist told me and my husband that our unborn daughter was going to be born with a lethal form of dwarfism and we should abort the pregnancy. I attended a healing, prayer service shortly afterward. Our daughter is now almost 16 years old, smart, beautiful and the love of our lives. She does have dwarfism but she is perfect in our eyes. Don't under estimate the power of prayer.

Studies show it does not.

Prayer is a Placebo Effect at best. In studies like that performed by Harvard Medical School, prayer was shown to act no better than placebo. In fact, in this study prayer was specifically looked at in relation to recovery after surgery. It was found that those who were prayed for and knew of it did not recover faster than the control group with any statistical significance. And interestingly, the group that was prayed for but unaware of it (the group that would show if prayer had any real,n on-placebo effect) did WORSE than the control group.

If God is really a LOVING and POWERFUL God, He wouldn't act this way

First off, I don't understand how people can base their faith on a book, a book they claim to have been inspired by God, a book that's so VERY OPEN TO MISINTERPRETATION. Is that how God, if He did really want to write a book, would've wanted it? Does He like playing with people's minds and make them argue over the book He wrote? Some sense of humor, don't you think?

And so this book also says that God is omnipotent and all-loving. And then look at the world. There are countless people suffering and praying to God for help. We're only human so things naturally go wrong for us and we can't be trusted to make the right decisions all the time the way a baby can't think for him/herself. So we ask God, our "loving" God, for help. Remember, He LOVES us and He's ALL-POWERFUL. He can supposedly DO ANYTHING!!! And yet, when a creature that's so INSIGNIFICANT BY COMPARISON to this God prays to Him for things that He can grant in the blink of an eye and which would instantly remove the pain from this small insignificant creature, He does nothing. No really, He doesn't do anything. That person may have already done everything he could, exhausted all his/her options, and is already dead-tired, and is now 'putting things in God's hands'. Does God answer that person? Hmm... And oh yes, doesn't this book also say that God knows what we need even before we do? So He wants us to suffer, fight each other, break our friendships, etc.? Is that how a LOVING God wants things to happen?

If you are a very loving person who has all the power in the world to help anybody in need, what would you do when someone asks for your help? You HELP!! You see, the MOST LOVING and MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE on earth are SURELY not even anywhere near as loving as God is and are infinitely less powerful than He is, and yet, these people help other people. They JUST CAN'T HELP BUT HAVE PITY on people who are in need!!! So now we have a God who is ALL-LOVING and INIFINITELY POWERFUL who can see what we're going through. You ask Him for help... And He just shrugs you off. How the heck do you explain that??!?!?!

If prayer works it is not logical ? Can any favor be achieved by merely praying ?

Prayer is a psychological exercise. It may take you away from the stress and worry. But can it affect the outcome of anything? If it affects, is it logical ? Can i get a job i want merely by praying ? If i get it, is it not due to my suitability for the job or is it because i simply prayed ? Can a person avoid any outcome by merely chanting ? No doubt, chanting can give you some solace. But can it be a master magician or is it only our mental perception?

I dont believe prayer works

You can see evangelicals like Bennie Hinn on televison who pray and place their "holy" hands on peoples heads and they fall backwards apparently under the spell of God. Then they are caught by "holy" bouncers before their heads hit the ground. What you will never see is Bennie Hinn doing this act in a hospital and curing people of disease. By the way, if it is a God who is intervening when Bennie does this act then why would you need a bouncer to catch the people before they hit the ground. Wouldn't God protect these people?

Prayer can do more damage than good

Reality-You can't heal a heart valve through prayer any more than you can fix a cars engine. If the AC repairman comes over and takes out a cross instead of his tools, you will toss him out as a loon. I rely on my scientific skills to repair electronic equipment. I wouldn't be as good if I thought I was getting divine help. If a problem seems to disappear, I cannot think that god did it or I will miss the real issue and surely be back for the same problem later. Anecdotal evidence aside, there is not one recent documented case of a healing through prayer.

It works just as much as not praying does.

Prayer is basically just wishing for something and expecting some kind of supreme being to give it you. Even those who believe in the power of prayer will say that it does not always work, but a prayer that comes true doesn't mean that it works either. Praying about fixing money problems for example and winning the lottery the next day is NOT proof that prayer works. That's just something we call a coincidence. Also, most prayers are just bound to come true based on how high the probability of the outcome is. Saying that "not all prayers have to be answered" is just another cop-out excuse for an irrational belief that's based on no proof.

Not much debate to be had; it doesn't.

I don't consider this to be up for debate as it's a fact: Prayer has been tested time and time again against random chance and in every single study, prayer has no more effect than doing nothing. It's one of those rare instances where you can prove a negative, not that it's wholly necessary since there's no evidence that prayer HAS ever worked (beyond random chance against people who don't pray).

If you have made poor decisions in your life, you may have to own up to them

There are MANY that pray for this or that, like its wishing upon a star?! From not having a mate to a child that's deathly ill to not being able to pay the rent, you'll see it in all forms.If prayer truly worked, there would be no such thing as an atheist.

Refutation of Argument That Prayer Really Works

I still make the argument that to prove once and for all that prayer does or does not work that you show me a medically documented case where a person has been an amputee for several years and by the act of prayer, whether personal or corporate, has had the amputated part reattached to his/her body in a fully functioning form. There has never been such a case in recorded medical history, nor will there be one any time in the future. If prayer would work, all of the returning soldiers and marines with missing arms, legs, etc. Would not have to be hospitalized. They could merely have a time of prayer to restore there body. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

No, Prayer Does Not Work

There are many religious persons who swear that prayer works, and they pray for everything under the sun. For healing, for financial miracles, for love; name it, there has been a prayer offered up for it to a "higher" power. There is a simple test available to determine the effectiveness of prayer. Ask yourself, "Is there a document case in recorded medical history of an amputated limb, finger, toe, or an eye that has been removed or an ear that has been cutoff becoming whole and completely functional again after a prayer or years of prayer? If so, would someone pleas come forward with the evidence and unimpeachable witnesses to the event.